Saddleslut - A Greek Cinderella
There were once three sisters. They were with their mother spinning flax. Then the oldest sister said, "Whosever spindle falls, we eat them!" So they carried on spinning. The mother's spindlespindle fell first. They ignoredignored it and kept spinning. Then the mother's spindle fell again and the sisters ignored it again. But it happened again and this time the oldest sisters grabbed the mother and killed her, cooked her and ate her. They said to Saddleslut, the youngest sister, "Come eat," but Saddleslut said, "NO!"
The next day Saddleslut buried her mother's bones in the ashesashes of the fireplace and smoked them for forty days in incense. After this periodperiod of time Saddleslut removed the bones from the ashes in the hearth (harth). She was astonishedastonished to find a beautiful dress with many colours of spring flowers and lots of dazzling shiny coins.
Saddleslut removed the dress from the ashes, got dressed and put the coins in a little fabricfabric bag. Once she got the dress on she went to church and as soon as she arrived everyone stared, even her stepsisters, who didn't recogniserecognise her. Once church was over everyone wanted to know who the beautiful girl was. Saddleslut ran, ran and ran but she couldn't get rid of the crowd so she threw the coins to them to slow them down.
For many Sundays this happened until one Sunday morning she did not just lose her coins... She lost her shoe! This time Saddleslut was followed by the prince who picked up the shoe and announced that whosoever this shoe fit, she would become his bride. The prince looked everywhere around the kingdom and hundreds of hopeful girls tried on the shoe. When he came to Saddleslut's house, her sisters were sure one of them would be successful. But their predictions were wrong. The prince was about to leave when he saw Saddleslut and insisted that she tried on the shoe.
So Saddleslut tried the shoe on and it fit. The prince was overjoyed so he took her away. They got married and had a daughter. Saddleslut's older sisters we're still jealous so they grabbed her, stuffed her in a chest and threw it in the river. After long hours in the chest Saddleslut finally washed up on land and an old woman found the chest and opened it up to find beautiful Saddleslut and ran off screaming.
Saddleslut woke up and was frightened of the wild animals that she could hear and started to beg the gods for a little cabincabin and she found that anything she wished for, the gods granted it.
One day the prince was out hunting and passed the cabin and knocked on the door and Saddleslut recognisedrecognised him and answered the door. She let him in and set little tasks for him, hoping that he would recognise her. She offered him something to eat and teased him when he tried to smugglesmuggle out a spoon in his shoe. She said, "Don't blush, don't be afraid, I am your wife."
They went back to the castle and he had the sisters brought before him and punishedpunished severely.severely. Saddleslut and the prince lived happily ever after with their daughter.
Retold by Ruby
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